SEAGRAVES: Coming Home

Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Thirty years ago Karen, Joel, Zach, Nathan and I were living in Kingsport, Tennessee. I sometimes tell folks that I was exiled to Northeast Tennessee, but that is not true … we were surrounded by people who loved us and who were easy to love.

We were poor as the proverbial church mouse but created great memories that usually centered on something that didn’t cost much. McDonald’s was not only a treat for the boys but for mom and dad as well! Bay’s Mountain was a favorite spot to visit and learn about wild animals (the wolves used to track Zach because he was about the size of their normal prey). Just being together was a blessing.

For 11 years, we had been absent from Milledgeville, and that trip home from Kingsport over and around the mountains was long and arduous. For the first time since 1983, six months passed without seeing our parents and when we did see them I thought how they had aged.

Karen nor I grew up with grandfathers and wanted that for our own sons, so we began to plan and even scheme on how we could move closer. I called Nancy Kennedy, one of my high school English teachers, and asked if she knew of any job openings. I didn’t care what … I just wanted a job. She informed me that GMC was looking for a seventh grade English teacher. My thought was “I speak English, I could do that.”

I called Col. John Anderson to inquire and I don’t even think he thought about it before answering that if I could get certified, the job was mine. We were going home!

Thomas Wolfe wrote, “You can never go home again.” I think we have proven him wrong.

We came home and prospered in the town that raised us. It was not easy. We struggled in the same way that all families struggle, but we survived and ultimately thrived. I was blessed to recently retire from GMC Prep School after 30 years of teaching, coaching and trying to lead young men and women. Karen retired after 26 years in the GMC bookstore, and our three boys are all GMC graduates. Joel, Zach and Nathan were blessed in knowing their grandfathers, Felton and Jimmy. They impacted our boys the same way they impacted us. Karen and I had the privilege of spending the last years of their lives with them … loving and caring for them. Coming home was the BEST thing Karen and I have done in our 41 years of marriage.

This week is Homecoming week at Georgia Military College and that has inspired me — if you can call this writing inspired. On Friday night, hundreds will gather on Davenport Field to recognize the 2024 State Champion Soccer Team, to watch the Silver Wings deliver the game ball, to crown the new Homecoming queen, and to catch up on life. I will see folks I have not seen in too many years to count and I will see kids who have come home for the first time. Memories will be recalled and news ones will be made.

I am thankful for the opportunity I was given to come home. Our lives have been much more complete for living in this community and with the folks that call it home. Thanks so much to those of you who are still around that had a hand in raising us and our sons. You have made every day a homecoming.

—Scott Seagraves is a retired GMC Prep educator. His column appears occasionally in The Union-Recorder.